To continue the baseball metaphor — which should be allowed given the metaphor-laced budget address by Gov. Tom Corbett in March — the straws that will stir this season’s budget talks are two fast-talking fellas from the majority party in the state House: “Punxsutawney” Sam Smith and “Monarch” Mike Turzai.

These two conservative stalwarts are going to be left to defend against Senate Republicans whose moderate leaders, such as Dominic Pileggi of Chester and Jake Corman of Centre County, aren’t beholden to Corbett’s rhetoric.

“The House Republicans and the governor are kind of on an island,” said Bill Patton, spokesman for House Minority Leader Frank Dermody.

When it comes to defending the ideology driving this year’s budget, the two House leaders are going to have their hands — and mouths — full.

Smith, the speaker of the House, is an affable guy who worked his father’s tire shop and knows how to spin some rubber.

On Monday, Smith addressed the Pennsylvania Press Club, but he failed to clearly telegraph where House Republicans will wind up on several key issues, including an impact fee for drillers in the Marcellus Shale.

Smith waffled a little on whether a $500 million revenue surplus means House Republicans will move off of Corbett’s no-ifs-ands-or-buts bottom line budget of $27.3 million.

This ‘let’s spend every penny we have’ mentality is what got us into this problem, Smith said.

The budget bill was scheduled for final House consideration early this week before it’s taken up in the Senate. In addition to the premium on savings, leaders in both chambers are hellbent on proving they can pass a budget by June 30. That deadline was blown every year under Rendell.

But the additional revenue could throw a wrench into the works.

“They don’t want to believe there’s $500 million. And if they do, they want to save it instead of undo some of the pain that these cuts will cause schools or hospitals or take your pick of programs,” Patton said.

“It’s like an inconvenient truth that there’s increased revenues. The goal of about a couple dozen members of their caucus is to reduce the size of government and how they do that is through the budget process. That’s their philosophy. The fallacy is that we’re collecting more money and we have that money in hand,” he said.

At least Smith knew exactly where to get some good traction for the GOP: Ed Rendell.

Smith invoked the former governor’s name and spending habits several times, as if to remind everyone that if the GOP budget leaders in the House cop to a dogmatic bottom line, it’s because of what Rendell (and a recession) left behind.

The numbers do help embolden the cause. Especially when Corbett says his budget addresses a $4 billion deficit.

According to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center in Harrisburg, the total outstanding state general-obligation debt increased from $6.8 billion to $10.4 billion — or 39 percent — from 2002 to 2010. Under the Rendell administration, total operating spending grew by almost $21 billion, a 45 percent increase, or more than double the rate of inflation.

It’s against this run-up in spending that Smith, Turzai and Corbett will stake their argument for a budget spend number that drops back to 2008 levels.

But five months into the new year, the dire economic climate that helped make tea party conservatism a campaign platform has lifted. The state has added about 67,000 jobs.

“In my opinion, this is only about ideology. They are fixated on that $27.3 billion number and I don’t understand why when even the Senate Republicans are saying we have the surplus and we can help alleviate those severe cuts to human resources,” said Ron Buxton, the Dauphin County Democrat who serves on the House Rules Committee.

The word is that Corman and Pileggi will spearhead a Senate campaign to restore funding to public and higher education. The transfer will come from the Department of Public Welfare. This comes on top of Pileggi’s criticism of Corbett’s signing a no-tax pledge.

This signals that the end of June is going to be tap-dancing time for Smith and Turzai. Either they capitulate to new revenue figures that say they don’t have to inflict pain or they amass votes for a budget that cuts just for the sake of cutting.

At risk for Smith and Turzai is that, in the end, not only students or hospitals will feel the pain, but they might, too.

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